The Detective (1968) Queer Film D+

DIRECTOR: Gordan Douglas

Frank Sinatra plays detective Joe Leland, assigned to investigate the brutal murder of a gay man found mutilated in his apartment. The crime is grotesque, and the police response is even more disturbing: a chorus of snickering prejudice and casual contempt for the victim’s sexuality. A roommate is eventually convicted, but Leland—more thoughtful than his colleagues—begins to suspect that the case has been wrapped up far too neatly.

Sinatra gives the role as much integrity as the material allows. The problem lies elsewhere. Abby Mann’s screenplay, condescending in its liberal earnestness, attempts to “explain” homosexuality with the same heavy hand he used to “explain” antisemitism in Judgment at Nuremberg. (He accepted his 1962 Oscar “in the name of all the intellectuals everywhere,” which tells you everything.) Gordon Douglas’s direction is flat and functional, draining the film of tension and nuance. And poor William Windom is saddled with the kind of gay role that made generations of adolescent boys want to disappear into the nearest river.

As a film, it earns a D+. As a pre‑Stonewall artifact, it is almost worth watching—if only to see how Hollywood tried, and failed, to grapple with homosexuality in the late 1960s.

The film’s off‑screen drama is nearly as famous as its on‑screen shortcomings. Rumor has long held that the disappointing box-office performance of The Detective, especially when compared to the runaway success of Rosemary’s Baby, played a decisive role in the Farrow–Sinatra breakup. Whether apocryphal or not, it’s a story that has clung to the film more tenaciously than anything in the plot.

The supporting cast includes Lee Remick, luminous even in underwritten roles, and Jacqueline Bisset, who brings a welcome jolt of intelligence and presence. Adapted from Roderick Thorp’s novel, the film remains a curious relic—earnest, misguided, and unintentionally revealing about the era that produced it.

STREAMING: Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, YOUTUBE

https://thebrownees.net/85-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1968/

https://thebrownees.net/85-queer-films-from-the-new-hollywood-1968-1980/

No Way to Treat a Lady (1968) Film Review B- TheBrownees